14.8.11
Wayside Celtic 4, Spartak 1
One of the final warm up games found a Wayside squad of 22 who looked slick and moved the ball better for most of the contest. Additionally they were more eager in the challenge and quicker to the second ball.
With Graham Breen recovering from his latest operation, and Tom Flanagan returning after injury, Spartak looked somewhat rusty. An early free conceded by Kevin O’Toole was converted past Peter O’Toole from 25 yards.
Wayside added a second before the interval when Spatak’s cover was penetrated.
As the Sky Blues struggled to get to the pitch of the ball Kelly moved to the middle to good effect; but David Browne, Paul Kinsella and Kevin O’Toole played roulette with a high line and were frequently caught by pacy attackers who finished tidily to put the homesters four up. Peter O’Toole also had to race out to head clear on one occasion, and the offside call came to Spartak’s rescue in a couple of dubious cases.
Glen Burke finished a neat move for a late Spartak consolation goal.
A good flavour of LSL Premier standard.
Form Report
Peter O’Toole 5 – a good save, also advanced quickly off line to save a certain goal, but won’t be happy with the goal conceded from a direct free.
Glen Burke 5 – a second half glimmer of 2008/9 form and took his goal well, but too often chose the wrong option on the ball.
Paul Kinsella 5 – A sleepy performance.
Keith Kelly 7 – Good at the back and energetic when moved to midfield.
Kevin O’Toole 5 – rusty from lack of match practice; some good tackles, but positional sense still off , and distribution not great
Tom Flanagan 5 Injury has hampered his pre season and he is still off the pace.
Steve Walsh 5 Nice touches on the ball and good vision, but weak in the air and in the challenge.
Anto Doyle 5 Belatedly got to the pace of the game in the second half.
Stuart Love 5 – Ran hard and took plenty of punishment. Touch and passing not at standard yet.
Thom O’Driscoll 5 No sign of the silky touches Thom is capable of, and hold up play poor.
Ger Byrne 5 A little short of Ger’s usual high energy performance.
Dave Browne 5 Was caught for pace and distribution and positional play weak.
Rob Deering 5 Started well but lack of training quicjky showed, and he faded.
Niall Lennon 6 Solid hold up play and drew fouls. Distribution good, missed a decent chance when through.
Steve Grier – no show
